Star Dust
by hikari6
Summary: one-shot and sorta a.u.-ish -- Sakura has "issues". Nothing is right in the world; she gets bad grades, her cards are malfunctioning... what is a girl to do? S+S Friendship


man, i wonder where i get these ideas.... o_O oh well... haha enjoy this fic... if you can... ^_- just kidding!!  
  
this is a one-shot thing... so nothing after this... :P  
  
oh and it's a bit a.u. ...  
  
  
  
this is dedicated to my friend, because even though she doesn't really know CCS or is interested in anime or manga in general, she can appreciate the face that i'm writing about "issues" hahaha, she has *plenty* of them... well according to her... ^_^  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Star Dust  
  
  
  
by  
  
  
hikari  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Argh! I can't get these to work anymore!" Sakura swore under her breath. She was way past the age of 10, when she first encountered the Clow Cards. They were now Sakura Cards and she was 17 years old, about to go into college.  
  
  
There was one problem with her cards though. They wouldn't work like they were supposed to. Even though they were named Sakura Cards, for some reason, they wouldn't respond to that. After many failed attempts, she finally found a way they'll work right. If she called them "Star Cards". (gee, i wonder where that came from...) She didn't really like that name though, but she was forced to call them that, if she wanted them to work.  
  
  
"I can't believe it!" she followed with a string of curses. She hated cleaning the house so she wanted to use her cards, but as usual lately, they didn't respond to her. She paced back and forth. What to do before Touya got home? Their father died, a couple years ago, and ever since then, Touya had quit college and started working. So now it was solely on Sakura that they had to rely on to clean the house.  
  
  
After debating the situation in her head, she gave in. She sighed. "Fine, fine... I command the Star Card Bubbles to clean the dishes." (uh, i did the command differently on purpose... for my own reasons...)  
  
  
The Bubbles seeped out of the card as it went to go to the kitchen. "I hate my life." She went around the rooms and commanded a different card for each room.  
  
  
When that was done, she went upstairs to her room. Faithful Kero-chan, as she liked to call him, was on her bed, sleeping like a log. "Kero-chan, Kero-chan, wake up!" She scooped him up and threw him into the air. He woke up and found himself in midair, and scared, flew up to the ceiling. "Ouch."  
  
  
"I'm sorry, Kero-chan. I only wanted to wake you up." Sakura sobbed. Kero smiled and patted her head. "That's alright." Then he frowned a bit. Sakura was always a bit pale when this happened but just to make sure he asked, "Did you fix them yet?" He was referring to the cards, and Sakura shook her head sadly. Calling her Sakura Cards "Star Cards" always drew more energy from her than needed. He knew what to do in this situation, but he wasn't sure if it would work. 'Sakura seems a little different than Clow Reed though...' he thought.  
  
  
Sakura started thinking again, after Kero had asked the question. 'Do I have anything else to do? I'm pretty sure the Cards are almost done.' Somehow, even THINKING about the cards could make Sakura's head feel a little light and dizzy. She shook them out of her thoughts. 'Hm... I have to see Tomoyo today for our project... oh no! School! Homework!' She mentally cursed again.  
  
  
She hated school just as much as she hated cleaning. She didn't hate the people there, actually she loved all her friends, but school itself was the problem. More accurately, her classes. She was getting bad grades in almost all of them. The only one she wasn't failing in was in P.E. Well, she wasn't failing ALL her classes... she had three D's and one C... not exactly failing right? She only had two F's... she sighed. Faking happiness she said as cheerfully as possible, "I'll go check on the cards. I'll be back soon. I'll bring some pudding."  
  
  
"Yay." Kero replied, not as enthusiastic as he would normally be, and it was a little too late. Sakura had already closed the door. At the moment, Kero was too preoccupied in his thoughts and how to help Sakura.  
  
  
[Sakura]  
Sakura summoned all the cards back to her. She was more powerful than before, much more than when she first had the Clow Cards. But she somehow felt even weaker. It was a strange feeling she had not felt in a long while. 'Maybe it's just me.'  
  
  
She looked around at the clean house before she sighed again, and went upstairs to do her homework with a pudding in one hand.  
  
  
[Lunch Time]  
Sakura made spaghetti, and some cookies. Cookies for Kero for dessert and Touya when he came home. She gave Kero his bowl of spaghetti and put a napkin around his neck to make sure he didn't get himself burned. She looked at the finished product and giggled.  
  
  
"What? What's so funny?" Kero demanded.  
  
  
She suppressed her giggles before she could reply, "You look like you're wearing a poncho! Haha, a snowman poncho!" She had used a christmas napkin, since it has passed just two weeks ago. Kero frowned. "Not funny."  
  
  
Sakura didn't reply because her giggles came back again. Kero looked at her for a moment before he started laughing too. Not long after, it turned into almost a laughing contest. Kero and Sakura were both on the floor of the living room laughing their heads off. Kero gave up first. He sighed in relief because his stomach hurted from all the laughing. "I'm going to go eat," he informed his giggling mistress. 'She really needs to laugh more.' he made a mental note of it. She had seemed much more healthier when she was laughing. Her cheeks were a rosy pink again and she didn't seem to have shadows under her eyes again, like she did whenever she stayed up late to do her homework. 'She tries too hard.' He sighed.  
  
  
After lunch, she went to her best friend's house. She rang the doorbell. "Coming!" she heard a melodious voice. The door opened. "Hey, Sakura-chan! Did you eat lunch?"  
  
  
"Yep."  
  
  
"Okay then, let's get started!" Tomoyo led the way to her room. "Hey, where's Eriol-kun?"  
  
  
"Oh, he said he had to do something today." Tomoyo looked a bit sad, about her boyfriend not being there. Sakura felt sorry, but at the same time, she felt a little relieved. Somehow, seeing Tomoyo and Eriol together... just made Sakura feel weird... she didn't know what it was... oh well. She mentally shrugged it off and started talking about what they should do.  
  
  
[Going Home]  
She walked home, at peace for the moment. As soon as she walked in, she knew she shouldn't've thought that. Her brother was home. He wasn't raising a ruckus or anything, but he was a little concerned. "Oh, good you're home. Next time, can you leave a note? Just in case you come as late as you did?" Sakura looked at the clock. To her surprise it read 7:30. No wonder her brother was worried. She had left almost six hours ago! "I'm sorry, Onii-chan. I'll never do that again." she hugged her brother, who hugged her back. Through her hug she felt her brother loosen. He was always tense when he came home, and his sister always cheered him up.  
  
  
He smiled at his sister's cheerfulness. "Hey, have you finished your homework yet?" "Hoeee?!!?! I forgot!!" she ran upstairs. Touya stared at her, a bit sadly. He didn't know how Sakura had such bad grades at school. 'She's a good kid.'  
  
  
She rushed to her room and started her homework in a flourish. She finished her physics homework in a hurry, just because she didn't have a lot of time to finish her other homework, and it was the class she got a 'C' in. She didn't have to worry about that as much as she had to for her other classes.  
  
  
Finally, one of her worst classes. Trigonometry. She had so much trouble with this class. This was one of her two 'F''s. She looked at the first problem, then yelled in exasperation.  
  
  
Touya came running. "Need help?"  
  
  
"Oh god, yes. I am definetely no help in these things." Kero clung onto Touya's shirt. He frowned. "Aren't you supposed to have been alive longer than us?"  
  
  
Kero put his head down. "But... I never had to learn these things."  
  
  
Touya sighed, then proceeded in helping his little sister in her homework.  
  
  
[Five hours later...]  
"Do you get it now?"  
  
  
"No..." Sakura shamefully put down her head. Kero was floating between the two. "Come on, Sakura, this is only the eighth problem... you still have seventeen more to go... it's 12:30 in the morning..."  
  
  
Touya was a little more patient than Kero. "Maybe you should go to bed, Kero-san... Okay, see? Sine to the triangle in-"  
  
  
(okay, i'm not in trig so that's why i stopped... hahaha... when i'm in trig, i'll consider rewriting that up there... :P which is in two years? i think...)  
  
  
Kero looked at the siblings and shook his head. 'This isn't going to help Sakura...'  
  
  
[Next Morning]  
Sakura woke up with a splitting headache and tired muscles. She went into the bathroom and stared at herself. She had very pale cheeks, almost sickly pale, in contrast to her very dark shadows under her eyes. She sighed and then applied her make up. She didn't usually approve of them, but she put it on to cover everything up, so that no one would worry about her. Everyone seemed to be doing a lot of that nowadays.  
  
  
She went downstairs where there was a note with some food.  
  
The note read  
=  
I have to go to work early  
today. I'm going to be  
late in coming home too.  
Take care and have fun in  
school.  
-Touya  
by the way, there's ice cream  
in the freezer you can give  
to Kero-san.  
=  
  
She left the note on the table and ate her cold food quickly so she could give Kero his ice cream, which was evidently his favorite. "Mmm!! This is great, my absolute favorite flavor!!!!!" he exclaimed when she brought it up. She chuckled as she got her backpack and she left for school.  
  
  
[School]  
She arrived in school, just in time to sit in her seat as the tardy bell rang. The teacher looked at her for a second before finishing his roll call.  
  
  
"Hey are you okay?" Naoko asked her, looking a bit worried. She looked at Sakura's tired face and wondered. "Yes, I'm just fine." Sakura said, and yawned. Naoko raised an eyebrow before putting her attention to the teacher who started talking.  
  
  
The rest of the day consisted mostly of Sakura sleeping in class, and people asking her whether she was okay. She was starting to lose it, and she finally yelled at Rika, who became confused when Sakura blew up in her face. "I-I'm sorry, Sakura-chan." she whispered and turned away slowly. "Sakura-chan, you don't need to be so mad," Chiharu exclaimed.  
  
  
"R-Rika-ch-chan... I'm... sorry, I'm sorry..." Sakura was too quiet for Rika who was already far away to hear. She sat down on a bench nearby and put her face in her hands. 'I can't believe I just yelled at Rika-chan... she's so nice too...' Sakura sniffed as tears formed in her eyes. Not too far away, Rika was having the same thoughts as she looked up to keep her tears from coming out. 'I'm so worried about you, Sakura-chan... feel better...'  
  
  
[Home]  
Sakura sat dejectedly in front of the television. She stared blankly as the animes went by. Finally, Touya came home. He found his little sister in front of the television where humorous things were happening, but he didn't find a laughing sister. She wasn't doing anything but holding the remote in one hand and resting her head on the other. She wasn't sleeping... but she didn't seem awake either. "Sakura..." he waved a hand in front of her face. She jumped up in surprise. "Hoee?!! Oh, onii-chan!!" she hugged her brother tightly. She sobbed into his shoulder. He patted her back. "Tell your onii-chan what's wrong."  
  
  
"I love onii-chan so much... he always makes me feel better." she lay on her bed. 'I wonder why he doesn't even have a girlfriend yet... is it because of me? Am I making him stay home?' She tossed in her bed as she slept.  
  
  
[Week Later]  
Sakura was still yawning thirty minutes after she woke up. She couldn't get them away. She felt so tired. She told her brother as he cooked breakfast. "Why don't you use the Time Card?" he suggested. "Hey, what a great idea! Er, do you want to sleep too?" Touya laughed. "Sure, why not?"  
  
  
Sakura was about to call them Sakura Cards when she just remembered. She frowned but she said, "I command the Star Card Shield to prevent the next spell going through to us." Then she said, "I command the Star Card Time to stop time and let me and onii-chan get some sleep. And Kero-chan if he wants." The cards worked immediately, and Sakura fainted.  
  
  
Touya asked Kero, "Why did she faint?"  
  
  
"She has... a problem... there's something wrong... "  
  
  
"Well I know THAT." Touya snapped. "But what is it?"  
  
  
Kero hesitated. "Well, I'm hoping it's not what I think it is... but the symptoms are right..."  
  
  
"What symptoms?"  
  
  
"Well, there's only one actually: Sakura has to call them with a different name than their original for them to work. And that's taking up more of her energy than it normally would. She's just too tired right now so she fainted."  
  
  
Touya raised an eyebrow; he didn't understand exactly what Kero meant by "different name".  
  
  
"She has to call them Star Cards instead of Sakura Cards." Kero shuddered. "Well at least it's not as bad as Sun Cards." He shuddered again at the bad names. (lol that's me^_-)  
  
  
"Explain."  
  
  
"I'll do it when she wakes up. That way I don't have to repeat myself..."  
  
  
Touya and Kero settled down for a nice long nap.  
  
  
Sakura woke up many hours later (just unknown by clock ^_^) and found Kero and Touya also sleeping. She felt like she was re-energized again, she had so much sleep. She smiled contently, then got up to take a shower.  
  
  
Touya woke up to find Sakura gone. He started panicking but then he heard the water running. 'Hm, who would've thought the water would run when time stopped? Oh well...' he waited patiently for his sister to come back.  
  
  
"Oh, you're awake too, onii-chan! Ohayo!" Sakura said cheerfully and Touya smiled in relief. 'She seems awake. Now time to wake HIM up.' He stressed "him" because he shook him awake as he thought it.  
  
  
"Huh? Wh-what? What's going on?" Kero asked groggily, barely opening his eyes. Touya said an eye-opener though for Kero and for Sakura also.  
  
  
"Come on, tell us about what's wrong with Sakura."  
  
  
"What?!" (that was Sakura)  
  
  
"Huh? Oh yeah..."  
  
  
Kero began his story. (okay, there were interruptions and stuff, like when he asked questions or said something that Sakura/Touya would exclaim to, but i didn't add it in, because the whole story would be totally broken apart then... well actually, i'll put in the *important* ones... lol)  
  
  
-=story=-  
You know how Clow Reed was very powerful and everything? Well, he actually had a little problem of his own, before he became that totally powerful guy that we all know. He called it 'Sun Dust' so I'm calling it 'Sun Dust'. It's kind of like, when your mouse can't move as well as it usually does and when you look inside you see dust, you know what I'm saying? You see, there was something wrong with his staff, the one Eriol holds. And the only way he could fix it was to find whatever was missing. There was something missing in his life and his staff knew it. The same thing happened to the Clow Cards that are happening to your Sakura Cards. They refused to be called Clow Cards. Instead he had to call them Sun Cards. Remember the sun design that used to be on the back of the cards? I think that's why they wanted to be called Sun Cards. And actually, if you look at your cards now, you'll see that they have the 'Star Design' on it, and you have to call your cards 'Star Cards'.  
-=interruption=-  
  
  
"Wait, so what was he missing?" Sakura interrupted.  
  
  
"Hold on, I'm getting to that now."  
  
  
-=story back=-  
Anyway, he didn't know why everything was happening.  
-=interruption=-  
  
  
"You're lucky, Sakura, that I could actually tell you this... okay, sorry... back to Clow..."  
  
  
-=story back=-  
He searched all his ancient spells, philosophy, you name it. But he couldn't find anything. No answers. It took him many years, and during that time, he had to call his beloved Clow Cards 'Sun Cards'.  
  
After all his back-breaking work, he really felt like his back was going to break-  
-=interruption=-  
  
  
"No, I didn't mean it as a joke!! Honest, even ask Yue!"  
  
  
"Fine... hurry with the story."  
  
  
-=story back=-  
So since he felt like his back was going to break, he created me and Yue. The first thing we did, unfortunately, was cleaning. He commanded Bubbles to clean, since he didn't like cleaning much either, but it wouldn't come out. He kept summoning by 'Sun' but when it wouldn't work, he sarcastically said 'Clow Card' and it worked! He was so ecstatic, and he got all the Cards around and celebrated. It was a miracle the whole place wasn't trashed. So anyway, my point is that, you're missing something in your life. Clow Reed was missing us, his guardians... now we just have to find out what you were missing.  
-=story end=-  
  
  
"So, how do you know all this, Kero-san?" Touya asked, a bit skeptical.  
  
  
"He told us!! He would NEVER lie." Kero exclaimed.  
  
  
Sakura giggled. "Okay, I believe you." she looked around her and asked herself, 'What am I missing?'  
  
  
[School]  
She pondered the question the whole day. 'I can't possibly be needing guardians. Kero is enough. But...'  
  
  
"So, did you talk to Rika-chan yet?" Eriol tapped her shoulder. "Hoe? Hoee!! I forgot! Rika-chan!" Sakura ran to her friend to apologize for what happened a week ago.  
  
  
Eriol stared at her. 'I wonder why she's so distant lately. And she seems a bit... I don't know... sick? or she looks like there's something wrong with her life.' He shook his head slowly and watched Sakura talk to Rika.  
  
  
[Trigonometry Class]  
"Hey, see that new guy?"  
"Yeah, isn't he so cute?"  
  
Those were some things that could be heard in the classroom as a tousled haired, boy came in. His chocolate colored eyes were filled with something that lacked in Sakura's. Happiness maybe, or amusement... Sakura lacked something, and this boy had it. He stood next to the door and waited. The teacher looked at him a bit suspiciously, then went down the list for roll call. "Oh, are you the new student?" she asked, surprised. He nodded. "Okay, Li Syaoran, you may sit..." she looked at her seating chart. "Over at the back. Next to Kinomoto Sakura. Raise your hand Kinomoto." Sakura obediently raised it. The boy, Li Syaoran looked at her and sucked in his breath. 'Wow, she's pretty.' He sat down next to the girl and looked toward where the teacher was, but occasionally peeked out of the corner of his eye to where Sakura was. 'Is she bored?' he watched her doodle in her notebook with one hand supporting her head. He watched her hand slow down, and then stop. He looked at her face and saw that she had closed her eyes. 'Why is she sleeping?' He shook her awake, trying not to be noticed by the teacher.  
  
  
Sakura didn't know why she was sleeping, because she had sleep today, but when the new boy shook her, she was grateful. She smiled at the boy and turned back to the teacher.  
  
  
Syaoran noticed that Sakura's smile never reached her eyes. It was like she wasn't happy at all. He sighed and looked back at the teacher.  
  
  
[Later in Trig... lol]  
"Grr, I don't get this!" Sakura was able to keep her voice low as she expressed her anger. Syaoran looked at her, and at the problem she was working on. It was number one. He raised an eyebrow and looked at his paper where he was on number seventeen. "Uh, do you need help?" he asked timidly to the girl whose smile didn't reach her eyes.  
  
  
"Yes, please!" Syaoran laughed, and helped her as much as he could.  
  
  
They got through five problems before the bell rang. "Wow, thank you soo much! Can you come to my house and help me again?" she breathed, so excited she was that she understood so many problems in so little time.  
  
  
Syaoran blinked for a second. "Sure."  
  
  
"Thank you!"  
  
  
[Home]  
"This is where I live. My room is upstairs. Oh hey, onii-chan's home early!" she exclaimed, noticing her brother's briefcase. "Onii-chan!"  
  
  
"Hey, Sakura!" the voice, evidently Sakura's "onii-chan" was off to the left. Syaoran followed Sakura into the kitchen, where her brother was making cake. "For Ker- who's he?" Touya asked.  
  
  
"Oh, he's Li Syaoran. He's going to help me in my homework!" she exclaimed, excited again. Touya raised an eyebrow. Syaoran shrugged, "I'm supposed to help her in trig." Touya looked at him, then at his sister, and his eyes softened. "I hope you can teach her."  
  
  
They went upstairs. Sakura babbled about how cool her brother was. Syaoran looked at her. She was smiling as she spoke about her brother, and this time, it definetely reached her eyes. 'I wonder what's making her sad.'  
  
  
He took time to look at her room. It was covered in pink. Almost. Her drapes were pink, her bed had pink sheets in it, her wallpaper was pink with sakuras on them, ectera, ectera. He noticed pictures on the walls. Sakura went to the bathroom and he looked at them closely. Two caught his eye. One was of Sakura and her family, consisting of her, Touya and a man he assumed was their father. He wondered where their mother went and went to look at the others. The other one, was a picture of all Sakura's Cards' True Forms. Syaoran could vaguely remember about seven years ago, that he was going to go "capture" some "Clow Cards" but then civil war broke out in China and they forgot about it. He remembered seeing those faces before. And those poses. There were 53 different poses and they were all in a group picture. He stared at it. "Hoe? What are you looking at?"  
  
  
"Oh... nothing." he blushed, embarrassed. "Uh, can I go to the bathroom?" he wanted to get his face back to normal. Sakura nodded and pointed to their left. He left in a hurry, but slowly enough so that he heard a voice telling Sakura, "Be careful of that one... he may know something..." 'Me? Is whatever's talking, talking about me? What do I know?'  
  
  
  
[Three hours later...]  
"Wow! I finished ALL my homework in three hours!!" Sakura was ecstatic. Syaoran was dead tired. Homework had never taken him this long. He looked over his shouulder to where Sakura was doing the happy dance with a stuffed animal she was holding in her hands. He couldn't help but notice that Sakura was cute. He blushed again. 'Stop it, Syaoran.' Then he noticed the stuffed animal closely. "That's no stuffed animal." he said, suddenly.  
  
  
Sakura stopped immediately and there was silence in the room. Then Kero broke the silence. "Damn straight."  
  
  
"Kero!"  
  
  
"Sorry, but the guy knows already!"  
  
  
Sakura sighed. "How much do you know exactly?"  
  
  
Syaoran shook his head. "Not much." He described everything he knew. He didn't think it was much, but Sakura's eyes was a bit big for him to confirm that. Then she broke into a smile.  
  
  
"Do you think you can help me?" she told him her problem. Syaoran sadly shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know I can help you... but if you need anything, just tell me okay?" he patted her shoulder and got his stuff to leave. "Wait- what's your number?"  
  
  
Syaoran gave it to her as she wrote it down in a large scribble. She smiled apologetically as he stared. "Sorry, I just rushed." He looked at her and smiled. "You're cute." (as in funny... get it? lol) He left.  
  
  
Sakura leapt up in joy. "I finished my homework!" (haha what did you think she was going to say? ^_^) She ran downstairs and hugged her brother. She ate dinner and slept early.  
  
  
[Next Day]  
"Ah, I feel so refreshed!" She took a shower and then went downstairs to eat. She left for school and Touya left for work.  
  
  
During school, all day, everyone noticed her happy face and her more rosy cheeks. Everyone complimented her on getting some sleep. (lol) Syaoran grinned at her being hyper. 'Is this how she used to act?' She was happy all day and couldn't wait to sleep more.  
  
  
When she got home, she read a note on the table that read "Can you clean the house again, please? Thanks." She was in such a good mood that she immediately started. Not that she wouldn't even if she was in a bad mood. But she started vigorously. She called on her Small Card to get the little things in the cracks and stuff. Usually her cards didn't mind doing odd things. But it didn't work.  
  
  
"I command the Star Card Little to clean every little thing." She commanded over and over, but it wouldn't work. She got a bit exasperated, but then grinned as she remembered Kero's story. For fun, she said her usual command (using 'Sakura Card' ^_^) It worked! "Hoee?!! I didn't know it would work!" She got hyper again. "Kero! Look!!"  
  
  
"What? You convinced the Change Card to change sheets or something?" he joked.  
  
  
"I can use my regular command!"  
  
  
  
----------------------------------------------  
  
  
ah, this wasn't too bad, i think... it wasn't so sad *remembers her Rika fic*... hehe ^_^ anyway i hope you guys liked it...  
  
  
she had friendship of Syaoran, and that's why she could use her usual command again, lol just in case you were confused... 


End file.
